After a busy few days at NoVacancy Hotel + Accommodation Industry Expo in Sydney last week, we are back in New Zealand and ready to hit the ground running. Compared to the Expo last year, when the accommodation industry was in the middle of the COVID lockdown woes, this year attendees were ready to go with new roadmapped projects and interested in what the future of guest experience in accommodation looks like.
The main goals for attendees this year were particularly focussed on end-to-end self-service options for guests and support for staff through busy check in and check out periods.
Pictured: Anthony, Solutions Director and Founder setting up for the Expo.
Even though we champion self-service with our Guest Experience Platform, a big part of what we do at Altitude is also focussed on helping operators streamline their processes to reduce pressure on their teams.
The general consensus was that in a post-COVID world, a significant amount of people have left the hospitality workforce, making it harder to recruit and retain employees. Operators also face increased challenges around covering sick leave and staff absences. To mitigate this, operators are looking towards self-service as a back up or alternative to the traditional check in and check out experience, with most moving to implement a kiosk or self-check in solution in the near future.
We also noticed the continued shift towards RFID hardware to include mobile keys in guest experience. Mobile keys were a hot topic, with most properties working with RFID keys, or planning to do so in the near future.
Our Guest Mobile App was very well received, with the full end-to-end guest experience, including room service, surveys, payments and more available for guests while fitting nicely into the property’s guest experience strategy.
Key updates from Altitude included demoing new enhancements and our latest kiosk enclosures.
This year we were pleased to have our new all-in-one kiosk enclosure at NoVacancy, available in portrait (as pictured at NoVacancy) and landscape below. The all-in-one unit includes all you need to get an onsite kiosk up and running, while being highly customisable. We were also excited to have our Key Pick-up Kiosk (a big hit, with more information coming in a blog soon), and our build your own options for attendees to check out. Take a look at the latest kiosks below.
We had an excellent time at the Expo and enjoyed meeting everyone as well as connecting with our industry and integration partners.
We’re certainly looking forward to the next year as we begin working on more exciting projects to help accommodation operators implement their ideal guest experience, automate their procedures and reduce operational pressures.
